Disaffected sound didn't go out in the nineties, it's just that we perfected it then. Of course, back then the whole scene was disaffected in large part because we had nothing worth fighting aobut or for. We just ended up complaining ad nauseum about out pathetically boring lives, our lack of direction, or lack of style. Now that we're coming up on the end of the millennial decade, are in the middle of two wars, a jobless rate whose numbers get padded more and more by the week, and still without a direct sense of purpose, the disaffected sound-- minor keys, dark lights, heavy bass, a front man able to grunt and sing all at the same time-- is back with far, far more purpose than it had when I was a teenager. Enter, then, Miami's Astari Nite, who's been gigging around the area for the last handful of years to increasing acclaim. Fronted by Mychael Ghost and backed by a threesome of neo-cool hipsters whose music carries Mychaels angelic lyrics and voice.

It's in the tone, I think, that a new trend is coming of which this melodical group will well be at the forefront. Traditionally the music scene is the first to call to protest while the rest of the world sits sipping at their coffee and reading the paper, musing quixotically about the plight of the down-trodden. The dark musical acts of the last decade were thought to be interpreters of an underbelly of society that few others refused to acknowledge publicly of its exsistence. These days, though, all the pain is out in the open. Whether Astari Nite's sound shouts hope or demise is immaterial: what matters is that at a time when we're all on shaky ground, bands like this bring out the sounds many of us are afraid to make on our own.